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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder what stupid questions you've been asked

480 replies

backtolifebacktoreality · 09/12/2021 09:58

Last weekend I phoned a local florists
and asked them to send some flowers to a nearby friend.

The friend lives in a relatively small cul de sac. The florist obviously asked the address for them to be delivered to. I advised they lived at No 12.

She then went on asking all sorts of questions about how she could find the house once in the street, ie what side of the road etc. She then asked questions about what would make the house recognisable to her, ie what colour front door.

I had to bite my lip but really wanted to respond "the fact that is has the number 12 on the door"!

OP posts:
FoxgloveSummers · 09/12/2021 12:44

@PinkWednesdays

Went to the doctor complaining of a lot of rectal bleeding. Doctor asked me if I’m getting it mixed up with my period…

I wasn’t, and it turned out I had bowel cancer (all fine now).

God they really do think we're thick don't they.

Glad you're ok now.

IntermittentParps · 09/12/2021 12:46

@FatOaf

My maiden name was a colour. A common, everyday colour. One syllable. Can only be spelled one way. Yet endless people asked me how to spell it! For years!

Unless it's Black (or possibly Blue), I'm not sure about this:

Green/Greene/Gryn
White/Whyte
Brown/Browne/Braun

I was thinking this. But you could have Blacke, Blew, Blu too…

I don't mind people saying, 'Oh, are you left-handed?' It's just another way of saying 'Oh, you're left-handed.'; a question that's not really meant as one.

FoxgloveSummers · 09/12/2021 12:46

The person who was asked to spell W reminds me - I was asked by someone working in a bookshop how to spell the A.A. bit of A.A. Milne.

PureBlackVoid · 09/12/2021 12:46

I’ve been asked if I can speak English, whilst speaking English, when arranging a medical appointment for someone who needs an interpreter.

Usually I would laugh this kind of thing off as one of those autopilot moments, but I don’t have a foreign accent so when I mentioned the language barrier and it became clear we were foreign, her tone just changed. She was so condescending.

megustalacerveza · 09/12/2021 12:47

@Restart10

It sounds like the woman could well have had some kind of disability, such as a visual difficulty1

This could be used as an excuse/reason for absolutely everything then.

Well, yes.

Why people so willing to assume that people are stupid rather than disabled? It's incredibly ableist. I have a hearing impairment and it's truly incredible how many people treat me like an idiot because I've asked them to repeat themselves or repeated back what I heard to make sure it was right.

Just this morning a horrible woman snapped at me 'yes, that's what I just said' when I was double checking that what I'd heard was correct. It's even harder to understand people when they're wearing a mask and I can't lip read.

The world would be much better if people didn't automatically assume that other people were thick rather than struggling.

RandomLondoner · 09/12/2021 12:48

Asked how to spell w.

I learned on Mumsnet that "w" is "double-u", so I wonder if "w" could be spelled "uu".

ScreamingMeMe · 09/12/2021 12:49

A woman once asked my Dad "Where is the back of these houses?. To which he replied "Round the back."

ScreamingMeMe · 09/12/2021 12:50

@DrierThanANunsNasty

Do you think your period pains could be in your head? From a gynaecologist who basically didn’t want to investigate me for endo. This was 6 years ago and guess what I found out this year… they’re not in my head Hmm
"No they're in my fucking womb!"
PinkWednesdays · 09/12/2021 12:53

@FoxgloveSummers Thank you!

And it was actually a woman who asked me that question, which was surprising!

honeylulu · 09/12/2021 12:56

I think I've posted this before but when we were visiting aiya Sophia in Istanbul and looking at a mosaic of the Virgin Mary, I mentioned to my husband that a lot of people don't realise she did not remain a Virgin all her life because somewhere in the bible it refers to Jesus' brothers .

He expressed surprise and asked "oh really, were they older or younger?" He wasn't joking either and believe it or not, he's very intelligent.

MadeOfStarStuff · 09/12/2021 12:56

The questions in the OP aren’t stupid, they’re questions from someone who is very used to dealing with the stupidity of the general public. Can tell OP has never done that kind of job if they expect everyone to have basic common sense.

yourestandingonmyneck · 09/12/2021 12:56

@TheCloudBotherer

I recently mentioned to a friend that I was getting my hair cut later that day. "Shorter?"

Well, yeah...

Haha, I like this one Grin
user7514254 · 09/12/2021 12:57

@megustalacerveza yep it’s like there could be no other reason rather than the person being “stupid”

honeylulu · 09/12/2021 13:06

The house number one isn't too strange. Our road is a right pain for delivery drivers. Originally it must have had various well spaced large Victorian houses. Over the decades more houses have been added in between so what you might think would be 14 and 16 is actually 12a and 12b. Plus the biggest houses are split into flats.

The big house on the corner that fronts onto a different road now has two tiny mews houses squeezed into what was the back garden and they front onto our road. Next is no. 1, a big house divided into 6 flats with another newer building (2 flats) squeezed into the garden. Then our house no 3. But to delivery drivers in a vehicle it looks like the 5th house along and assume logically it must be no. 9. Or we get stuff for Flat 3 of house no 1.

We have no less than 4 signs on the door, wall, gates stating "3". The one closest to the road states in full "3 Name of Road" but the confusion still happens!

When I order stuff I try and add a description in the notes.

honeylulu · 09/12/2021 13:09

Oh another one. When my son was 7 or 8 someone asked me why I'd not had another. I said (honestly) that I had fertility problems. She did a very concerned face and said maybe I should think about going to the doctor. As if that had never occurred to ne!

bumbledeedum · 09/12/2021 13:09

'Is he a good baby?' Well yes, he's very good at being a baby, he eats, sleeps and poops. How can a baby be 'good'? Think about 90% of people we've come into contact with with our second have asked the same yesterday.

Duckerbizzle · 09/12/2021 13:12

Just remembered this one haha, my friend was watching the Two Ronnies with her DH and asked him "Which one's Ronnie?"

honeylulu · 09/12/2021 13:12

@bumbledeedum

Ha! Yes when we had our first baby my mum came to visit and asked us "so are you pleased with him?" I nearly said "not sure, I think we'll take him back to the hospital and see what else they've got"!!!

iklboodolphrednosedpaindear · 09/12/2021 13:16

What if she had someone else driving? What if she was delivering on a push bike, like my local florist?

You're the one making the assumption of a disability. OP has already confirmed the florist doesn't.

Anordinarymum · 09/12/2021 13:17

@backtolifebacktoreality

Last weekend I phoned a local florists and asked them to send some flowers to a nearby friend.

The friend lives in a relatively small cul de sac. The florist obviously asked the address for them to be delivered to. I advised they lived at No 12.

She then went on asking all sorts of questions about how she could find the house once in the street, ie what side of the road etc. She then asked questions about what would make the house recognisable to her, ie what colour front door.

I had to bite my lip but really wanted to respond "the fact that is has the number 12 on the door"!

You sound awfully intolerant.
Soubriquet · 09/12/2021 13:18

I had a bit of an accident where I fell face first into a patch of nettles

“Did it sting your face?”
“Well….yeah” Hmm

They realised what they said and burst out laughing but I was very confused

arethereanyleftatall · 09/12/2021 13:20

I think the op got off lightly here with so many lighthearted anecdotes after her op.

It doesn't take much empathy to realise there will be a very good reason that you got asked those questions both times.

You don't even have to know what the reason was, but they're obviously not asking for shits and giggles.

At a simple guess, the florist spends a fuck tonne of wasted time looking for houses, and the admin lady receives a fuck tonne of incomplete forms.

frazzledasarock · 09/12/2021 13:22

What’s my user name and password…

And I get abuse for not knowing what their personal username and password is!

fourandtwo · 09/12/2021 13:28

My wedding coordinator (came with the venue, thankfully did not pay extra for him) asked with a straight face how many musicians would be in my string quartet. “It’s a quartet.” “Oh okay… so three?” Confused

ArsenicNLace · 09/12/2021 13:32

A few years ago I was having my annus horibilis. I'd just found out my partner of 15 years had been having an affair with a family friend who he then left me and our two young children for. A month later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The nurse I went to see at the surgery insisted on making me GP appointment as she was concerned about my mental health. She felt I was a bit 'hyper' and I wasn't sleeping at all.

Go to visit lovely GP who has clearly read the nurses update on my notes. We discuss some of what's been going on and she's very sympathetic. However she has a student with her and she asks if it would be ok if he asked me a few a few questions. He was clearly reading from a pro forma. After establishing I wasn't sleeping he asked, ' And is there anything particularly stressful in your life at the moment'? You mean in addition to finding out about an affair, being abandoned to be a single mother and having just being diagnosed with breast cancer? It was a bit of a pin drop moment. I even heard the GP take a sharp intake of breath and he then looked a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights!